Heatwave takes its financial toll on farmers

Leaner lambs and, as Hexham Mart reported at its weekly store cattle sale last Friday, younger, less fleshed cows are coming into the ring.

“It’s affecting every class of stock coming through now,” said auctioneer Chris Armstrong.

“We aren’t seeing the numbers of prime lambs. Whilst they are growing, they are not laying down the fat cover and there’s no relief in sight.

“This is our fourth week of store lambs and we are seeing numbers increased on the year and seeing a relatively buoyant trade against lambs in the fat.

“Someone selling lambs to the fat market could well offload them early and sell them to store, but who’s going to buy them?”

His colleague Trevor Simpson had knocked down fat lambs for £77 on Tuesday morning, but store lambs to an average of £60 last Friday.

Chris said: “For farmers to be able to buy those lambs and take them home and fatten them up and sell to slaughter, there is no margin – especially if they have had to buy manufactured feed.”

Next Friday was the Anniversary Prize Show and Sale that marked the date of the mart’s move to its current site on Tyne Green.

They were expecting between 600 and 800 head of predominantly yearling cattle – beasts that would normally go back out to pasture.

“But the pastures haven’t lasted – they’ve either been eaten and haven’t regrown or they’ve been burnt off,” he said.

“So what we have seen progressively over the past few weeks are buyers actively turning away from those younger types that need to go back out to grass.

“It’s Catch 22. I’ve had phone calls from producers in the North Tyne Valley, and further afield, who would normally summer these cattle and rehouse them during the winter and start selling them next spring, but as everyone knows, fodder supplies are going to be the issue this winter.”

One such farmer had already discussed selling the 40 bullocks he would usually have sold in January/February, at 18 to 20 months, before Christmas.